Phoebe Keef
Phoebe Keef was a field archaeologist and was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1938. She directed several excavations, including work at East Dean Park and Harting Beacon, both in Sussex.
Biography
Keef was born in Amritsar in 1898, during the British Raj, and her family later moved to England where she went to school. Keef's father died when she was 3 years old. During the First World War, Keef worked for the YMCA and the St John's Ambulance, and received a medal for her work with the YMCA.In 1934 Keef completed a diploma in archaeology, studying at University College London. In 1938 she volunteered at the excavation of Angmering Roman villa. She also excavated at Chester hill fort in Scotland in 1939.
Keef worked at a hospital during the Second World War, and was a hospital librarian, but in 1941 was allowed time away from the hospital to join excavations at Angmering. Two years later she took part in 'The Conference on the Future of Archaeology' at the Institute of Archaeology in London, contributing to a discussion on the role of archaeological societies.
Keef directed excavations at the hillfort known as Harting Beacon between 1948 and 1952; the results were largely unpublished aside from a note in The Antiquaries Journal, however, Owen Bedwin later published a summary of the excavations in the Sussex Archaeological Collections based on Keef's notes accessed after her death. Keef ran the West Sussex excavation group. With the group she excavated a Romano-British farmstead near Lambs Lea in Sussex in 1953–54.